Venture Smith: Pulling the Rope in Unison

Venture Smith: Pulling the Rope in Unison[i]

It has become something of a cliché to imagine that Black families today find it difficult to experience stability because of a long history of instability caused by slavery and racism. While not at all minimizing the obstacles that enslaved African American families have faced, history paints a truer and more optimistic picture of their response. Though everything fought against them, enslaved African Americans battled gallantly to maintain family cohesion—a cohesion that provided a sturdy platform from which to handle life courageously.

Enslaved African American couples sustained strong marital relationships. Venture Smith was born in Dukandarra, in Guinea, about 1729. Kidnapped at age eight, Robertson Mumford purchased him a year later. After living with Mumford for thirteen years, Venture married Meg at age twenty-two. They remained together for over forty-seven years, through many trials and tribulations, until parted by death.

Venture’s narrative contains an explanation for their marital faithfulness. On the occasion of their marriage, Venture threw a rope over his cabin and asked his wife to go to the opposite side and pull on the rope hanging there while he remained and pulled on his end. After they both had tugged at it awhile in vain, he called her to his side of the cabin and by their united effort they drew the rope to themselves with ease.

He then explained the object lesson to his young bride. “If we pull in life against each other we shall fail, but if we pull together we shall succeed.”

Jennie Hill was born and enslaved in 1837 in Missouri. Florence Patton interviewed the ninety-six-year-old Hill in 1933. During her interview, Hill adamantly resisted the notion that enslaved families lacked closeness. “Some people think that the slaves had no feeling—that they bore their children as animals bear their young and that there was no heartbreak when the children were torn from their parents or the mother taken from her brood to toil for a master in another state. But that isn’t so. The slaves loved their families even as African Americans love their own today.”

Communicating the message of African American family love was so important to Reverend Thomas Jones that he bore witness to it on the very first page of his narrative. “I can testify, from my own painful experience, to the deep and fond affection which the slave cherishes in his heart for his home and its dear ones. We have no other tie to link us to the human family, but our fervent love for those who are with us and of us in relations of sympathy and devotedness, in wrongs and wretchedness.”

African Americans have a great legacy of family love. That legacy, modeled by Smith’s family, Hill’s family, and Jones’ family, teaches that hardships do no make it too hard to love.



[i]Excerpted with permission of Baker Books from Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

African American Spirituals

African American Spirituals: Telling the Rest of the Story[i]

To appreciate the meaning, message, and mutual ministry of the slave spirituals, it is vital to understand how and why they were composed. Carey Davenport, a retired Black Methodist minister from Texas, had been born enslaved in 1855. He vividly depicts the spontaneous nature of slave spirituals. Sometimes the Colored folks would go down in dugouts and hollows and hold their own service, and they used to sing songs that come a-gushing up from the heart.”

These were not polished, practiced anthems designed to entertain. They were personal, powerful psalms designed to sustain. “Songs were not carefully composed and copyrighted as they are today; they were ‘raised’ by anyone who had a song in their hearts.”

Slave spirituals were shared songs composed on the spot to empathize with and encourage real people in real trouble. Anderson Edwards, a slave preacher, remembers, “We didn’t have any song books and the Lord gave us our songs and when we sang them at night it just whispering so nobody would hear us.”

The creation of individual slave spirituals poignantly portrays care-giving at its best. When James McKim asked a slave the origin of a particular spiritual, the slave explained, “I’ll tell you; it’s this way. My master called me up and ordered me a hundred lashes. My friends saw it and are sorry for me. When they come to the praise meeting that night they sing about it. Some are very good singers and know how; and they work it in, work it in, you know; till they get it right; and that’s the way.” Spirituals were born from slaves observing and empathizing with the suffering of their fellow slaves as a way of demonstrating identification and solidarity with the wronged slave.

Creating and singing spirituals in the middle of their predicament became a means for reciprocal bonding. Slaves wove the words into the fabric of their worship and into the tapestry of their everyday life together. This resulted in communal empathy. The flexible, improvisational structure of the spirituals gave them the capacity to fit an individual slave’s specific experience into the group’s experience. One person’s sorrow or joy became everyone’s through song. Singing the spirituals was therefore both an intensely personal and vividly communal experience in which an individual received consolation for sorrow and gained a heightening of joy because his experience was shared. It was a lasting portrait of the truth that shared sorrow is endurable sorrow.

In the very structure of the spirituals, we see articulated the idea of communal support. Frequently the spirituals mentioned individual members present, either by name—“Sister Tilda, Brother Tony,”—or by description—“the stranger over there in the corner.” This co-creation included everyone in the experience of mutual exhortation and communal support. Drawing from the Bible, Protestant hymns, and sermons, the slaves fashioned spiritual music which expressed their faith in moving, immediate, and dramatic terms.

The spontaneous creation of the spirituals exemplifies what people-helpers call “staying in the moment,” “being present,” and “immediacy.” The African American spirituals demonstrate that caring for people is not so much about skills, but about artful connecting through real and raw relating.

[i]Excerpted with permission of Baker Books from Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

Maria Stewart: A Voice for the Voiceless

Maria Stewart: A Voice for the Voiceless[i]

In September 1832, in Boston, Massachusetts, Maria Stewart (1803-1879) did something that no American-born woman of any race before her undertook. She mounted a lecture platform and raised a political argument before an audience composed of both men and women.

According to her personal testimony, she was a woman of profound Christian faith, moved by the Spirit to “willingly sacrifice my life for the cause of God and my brethren.” In the climate of that day, she did indeed take her life in her hands. In her characteristic fiery style, familiar to readers of her articles in The Liberator, she argued against the colonization movement to ship African Americans to West Africa. Using biblical imagery she challenged her racially mixed audience asking, “Why sit ye here and die?”

She called Blacks and Whites to action, in particular urging Black Americans to demand their God-given rights. Her message was unsparing and controversial, intended as a goad to her people to organize against the tyranny of slavery in the South and to resist and defy the restrictions of bigotry in the North.

To fully comprehend Stewart’s staggering accomplishments, we have to backtrack to her less than advantageous upbringing. As she tells her story:

I was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1803; was left an orphan at five years of age; was bound out in a clergyman’s family; had the seeds of piety and virtue early sown in my mind, but was deprived of the advantages of education, though my soul thirsted for knowledge. Left them at fifteen years of age; attended Sabbath schools until I was twenty; in 1826 was married to James W. Stewart; was left a widow in 1829; was, as I humbly hope and trust, brought to the knowledge of the truth, as it is in Jesus, in 1830; in 1831 I made a public profession of my faith in Christ.

Married at 23, widowed at 26, converted at 27; she challenged a nation at 28. In the fall of 1831, she entered the offices of William Lloyd Garrison, the editor of the newly established abolitionist newspaper The Liberator. Stewart handed Garrison the manuscript of her challenge to African Americans to sue for their rights. Relegated to the paper’s “Ladies Department,” both ladies and gentlemen received her confrontation.

Stewart entitled her work Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality: The Sure Foundation on Which We Must Build. She told her readers that she “presented them before you in order to arouse you to exertion, and to enforce upon your minds the great necessity of turning your attention to knowledge and improvement.” Here we have a young, female, African American widow writing in a White male abolitionist tabloid as a spiritual director to motivate her people to learning and action.

Stewart adeptly inspires her audience by helping them to envision and unearth their buried talents and abilities. “All the nations of the earth are crying out for liberty and equality. Away, away with tyranny and oppression! And shall Afric’s sons be silent any longer? Far be it from me to recommend to you either to kill, burn, or destroy. But I would strongly recommend to you to improve your talents; let not one lie buried in the earth. Show forth your powers of mind. Prove to the world that though black your skins as shades of night, your hearts are pure, your souls are white.”

Stewart grounds her exhortations in her understanding of racial equality. “Many think, because your skins are tinged with a sable hue, that you are an inferior race of beings; but God does not consider you as such. He hath formed and fashioned you in his own glorious image, and hath bestowed upon you reason and strong powers of intellect. He hath made you to have dominion over the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea (Genesis 1:26). He hath crowned you with glory and honor; hath made you but a little lower than the angels (Psalms 8:5) . . .” Using the biblical truth of the imago Dei (image of God), Stewart guides her readers toward the counter-cultural but scriptural truth that, “It is not the color of the skin that makes the man, but it is the principles formed within the soul.”

Stewart also confronts past failures and challenges toward future exploits. “O, ye daughters of Africa, awake! Awake! Arise! No longer sleep nor slumber, but distinguish yourselves. Show forth to the world that ye are endowed with noble and exalted faculties. O, ye daughters of Africa! What have you done to immortalize your names beyond the grave? What examples have ye set before the rising generation? What foundation have ye laid for generations yet unborn?”

In perhaps her most frank comments, Stewart challenges Black women not to “bury their minds and talents beneath a load of iron pots and kettles.” She explains that Whites “have practiced nothing but head-work these 200 years, and we have done their drudgery. And is it not high time for us to imitate their examples, and practice head-work too, and keep what we have got, and get what we can?”

How prescient. How far ahead of her time.

And she’s just warming up. Stewart also exhorts to a spirit not of aggressive anger, nor of passive resignation, but of assertive courage. “And we have possessed by far too mean and cowardly a disposition, though I highly disapprove of an insolent or impertinent one. Do you ask the disposition I would have you possess? Possess the spirit of independence. The Americans do, and why should not you? Possess the spirit of men, bold and enterprising, fearless and undaunted.”

What an inspiring challenge. Stewart is reminding African American women that God endowed them with an equal measure of spiritual power, love, and wisdom. They do not have to take a backseat to anyone. Her message rings true still today.

[i]Excerpted with permission of Baker Books from Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

Daniel Alexander Payne: The Rosa Parks of His Day

Daniel Alexander Payne: The Rosa Parks of His Day

Rosa Parks (1913-2005) was the “Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement” according to the U.S. Congress. On December 1, 1955, Parks became famous for refusing to obey bus driver James Blake’s order that she give up her seat to make room for a White passenger.

Her actions started the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was one of our nation’s largest movements against racial segregation. In addition, it helped to launch Martin Luther King, Jr., who was involved with the boycott, to prominence in the Civil Rights movement. Rosa Parks has had a lasting worldwide legacy.

Seventy years earlier, Daniel Alexander Payne (1811-1893) engaged in a similar, but lesser-known act of civil disobedience. Had his actions been more widely reported, Payne might today be known as the “Father of the Former-Day Civil Rights Movement.”

Born to free Black parents in Charleston, South Carolina, Payne was an early leader in and the official historian for the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). Leaving the South in 1834, Payne studied at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, PA, and then ministered for over fifty years as a pastor, educator, and influential bishop.

Payne’s ministry returned him to the South in the twilight years of his life. When he was in his seventies, he refused to stay on a train where he would have been seated in Jim Crow conditions. Standing his ground and confronting the White authorities on the train, he said to them, “Before I’ll dishonor my manhood by going into that car, stop your train and put me off.”

Payne describes the scene after he left the train. “The guilty conductor looked out and said, ‘Old man, you can get on the platform at the back of the car.’ I replied only by contemptuous silence.”

Payne then carried his own luggage, walking a great distance over “a heavy bed of sand” to his next speaking engagement in the deep South. Payne literally walked the talk. By doing so, he was the predecessor of later-day Civil Rights leaders such as Parks.

How did such courage develop in Payne’s life? Where did such conviction emanate from in his background?

Payne himself credits two men in his life, the one his biological father and the other his spiritual mentor. Payne’s father started him on his purposeful life. “I was the child of many prayers. My father dedicated me to the service of God before I was born, declaring that if the Lord would give him a son that son should be consecrated to him, and named after the Prophet Daniel.” Payne marveled at the sense of self, the sense of masculinity, that his father conveyed to him.

His father did so not only by naming, but also by modeling. Of his father, Payne testifies, “He was an earnest Christian and a class leader, having two classes under him—what used to be called the Seekers’ Class and the Members’ Class. He was a faithful observer of family worship; and often his morning prayers and hymns aroused me, breaking my infant sleep and slumbers.”

Though empowered by such spiritual fatherly nurture, Payne felt the wound of fatherlessness when his father died when Payne was four. After his mother passed away when he was nine, Payne’s great aunt raised him. Seeing his need for a father figure, he joined a church and was “assigned to the class of Mr. Samuel Weston, who from that time became the chief religious guide of my youth.”

As valuable as these two male mentors were in Payne’s life, he credited another Male (the God-Man) with being his essential model. “The glorious manhood of Jesus Christ is the only true type of real manhood. . . . Study him, study him as your model; study the perfect model of manhood until he shall be conformed in you.” Payne copied the Apostle Paul’s male mentoring model. “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Similarly, Rosa Parks’ courage was embedded in her through her upbringing in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where she was mentored during her lifelong active membership. Here she heard of the inspiring exploits of AMEC Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne. In 1995, she published her memoirs, Quiet Strength, which focused on the role that her faith played in her life. Parks also noted the impact on her life of her mother, a teacher, who home-schooled her until she was eleven.

Rosa Parks and Daniel Alexander Payne—both lived courageous, exemplary lives of racial reconciliation. Both were inspired by empowering spiritual mentors. Both are African American heroes of the faith whose lives are worthy of emulation. Both deserve their place among that “great cloud of witnesses” in God’s hall of faith.

[1]Excerpted with permission of Baker Books from Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

African Americans and Biblical Counseling

African Americans and Biblical Counseling

I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on African Americans and biblical counseling. Leaders in various biblical counseling movements lament the low percentage of African Americans attending their conferences.

Why? I think my study of Black Church history provides a convincing answer. Working on my book Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, my co-author and I were looking for any and all instances of what today we call biblical counseling—whether by pastors or lay people.

We looked for examples of:

*Soul Care for Suffering and Sanctification: Sustaining and Healing—Comforting those sinned against in a fallen world.

*Spiritual Direction for Sinning and Sanctification: Reconciling and Guiding—Confronting those sinning.

We certainly found reconciling and guiding.

However, we found a greater preponderance of sustaining and healing.

Here’s the issue. Some current models of biblical counseling focus almost exclusively on confronting sin. In fact, some leaders in some of these movements will tell you that people simply don’t come to them for issues related to suffering. Of course, this may have much to do with the message being communicated that biblical counseling is about sin and not about suffering (a false message, by the way).

African Americans, given their history of suffering, have grave concerns with any model of biblical counseling that spends the bulk of its time confronting sin while ignoring suffering. For African Americans, progressive sanctification is just as vitally related to suffering as to sinning.

For African Americans, pastoral counseling and pastoral care is equated at least as much with sustaining and healing sufferers who have been sinned against as it is with confronting Christians who are sinning against God and others. This in no way minimizes their hatred of sin, their view of depravity, or their focus on God’s glory. African Americans, however, understand from the Bible, Church history, and their national history, that true pastoral counseling, lay counseling, biblical counseling, and pastoral care must deal both with the sins we have committed and with the evils we have suffered.

"Rule Over!"

“Rule Over!”

In my previous blog, I asked and answered the question, “What are the first words spoken by God to a human being?”

The answer? Not Genesis 1:28, but Genesis 2:16.

Genesis 1:28 was spoken to Adam and Eve, and thus chronologically had to occur in the context of Genesis 2:21-25.

Think about the implications of this.

Immediately before the Serpent tempts Eve and Adam, God tells Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiple: fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Many have wondered how Eve heard the words God told Adam in Genesis 2:16-17 about all the free-to-eat trees and the one forbidden-to-eat tree. Obviously she had heard, since she (mis-quotes) God. So, either God told her but it is not recorded, or Adam told her. Either way, she was told.

But more pertinent to this discussion is that we do know what she was told by God before the Serpent tempted her. “Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Ringing in Eve’s ears, and Adam’s, should have been the words "Rule over!”

Subtly tempted by he Serpent who was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made, Adam and Eve should have continuously reminded themselves, "Rule over!”

And what about us?

Ringing in our ears do we hear the empowering words “Rule over!”

When we feel like life is too much, when we are overwhelmed, when we are tempted, do we give in and give up, or do we rule over?

"You Are Free!"

"You Are Free"

What are the first words spoken by God to a human being?

Most of us would immediately say they are the words spoken in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and increase in number.”

However, those words were spoken to Adam and Eve. “God blessed them and said to them. Likely those words were said right after the creation of Eve in Genesis 2:21-25.

So, what was spoken first?

“You are free” (Genesis 2:16).

Think about that!

The very first words God said to a human being: “You are free!”

We have bought Satan’s lie that God is a shalt-not God. Yet God’s first communication with us shouts, “I am a shalt Got!”

“You are free!”

We are choice-makers. We are choosers. We are free.

How powerfully that message should ring in our ears when tempted to sin. How powerfully that message should have rung in our ancestral parents’ (Adam and Eve) ears when the Serpent tempted them.

When you think of God, do you think of the Freedom-Giver?

When you think of yourself, do you think of the Free-one?

When faced with choices toward good or evil, do you hear the words, “You are free!” Free to choose good over evil.

When you are in an intense conversation and words are about to spill out of your mouth--death words, cruel words, harmful words, critical words--do you remember that "you are free" to stop; free to choose life words, constructive words.

We are not controlled by our "personalities," by our circumstances, by others. We are free.

One message pounded into my head again and again when researching Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, is the glaring truth, practiced daily by Christian slaves that "You may control my body, but you cannot control my soul! My body may be enslaved, but my mind is free. I am free!"

If enslaved African American Christians could remember this foundational truth, then why can't we?

“You are free!”

Beyond the Suffering Seminar

On Saturday, February 23, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., on the Main Lanham Campus of Washington Bible College/Capital Bible Seminary in Lanham, MD, I will present a seminar based on my latest book, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

Interactive Seminar

This interactive seminar will discuss ways lay people, pastors, and Christian counselors of all races can learn from the history of African American soul care to grow in Christ and to minister to those who are suffering pain or loss.

Lay people, pastors, counselors, and students of all races will:

• Be empowered to apply proven ways to help people find healing hope in the midst of deep pain and sorrow.

• Be equipped to minister more effectively in cross-cultural settings.

• Be enabled to skillfully practice historic soul care.

• Be enlightened about how to be a godly male leader by the founding fathers of the African American church.

• Be enthused about how to be a powerful female spiritual friend by the heroic sisters of the spirit of the African American church.

• Be enriched by past African American husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers concerning how to nurture and enjoy godly living in the home.

Beyond the Suffering Seminar Schedule

8:00–8:45 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:45–9:00 a.m. Worship with WBC OneVoice
9:00–9:10 a.m. Greetings and Prayer: WBC/CBS President Larry Mercer
9:10–10:30 a.m. Session One: So Great a Cloud of Witnesses: Following the Ancient Paths
10:30–10:45 a.m. Break
10:45–12:00 p.m. Session Two: Watered with Our Tears: Redeeming Pain and Suffering
12:00–1:05 p.m. Lunch Provided
1:05–1:15 p.m. Worship: WBC OneVoice
1:15–2:30 p.m. Session Three: The Old Ship of Zion: Uniting in Christ
2:30–2:45 p.m. Break
2:45–3:55 p.m. Session Four: This Far by Faith: Living the Drama of Deliverance
3:55–4:00 p.m. Closing Comments
4:00–5:00 p.m. Optional Campus Tour and Book Signing

Seminar Registration Fee:

$50.00 ($80.00 for two): Breakfast, Lunch, Copy of Beyond the Suffering, Seminar Notes, and Seminar Sessions are included.

Register Now! http://www.bible.edu/index.cfm?PAGE_ID=2296

Brief Synopsis of Beyond the Suffering:

The African American Church has always helped hurting and hardened people through the personal and corporate ministries of sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding. This four-dimensional model is the traditional and widely recognized pattern for understanding lay spiritual friendship, pastoral care, and professional Christian counseling. Beyond the Suffering uncovers the buried treasure of wisdom about soul care and spiritual direction contained in the history of African American Christianity. Written with the blended perspectives of an African American woman and a Caucasian man, Beyond the Suffering offers an in-depth exploration of this rich tradition, showing Christians proven ways to help people find hope in the midst of deep pain and sorrow. Pastors, counselors, and lay people, as well as African Americans hungry for the legacy of their ancestors, will appreciate both the history and the practical applications found in this book.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Consider today’s blog “Part II” in “What I Learned about Life from My Basement!” In “Part I,” I discussed how my basement refinishing project reminded me of the principle of Sharpening the Saw.

Measure Twice, Cut Once in Home Improvements

Here in “Part II,” my basement work has caused me to reflect on the principle of Measure Twice, Cut Once. If you’ve done any home repairs or remodeling, or any woodworking, then you are familiar with this principle.

If you have a piece of lumber to cut to fit a certain space, you measure carefully—twice. Because, it is much better to measure twice and get it right, then to measure once, get it wrong, and have to cut a second piece of wood. Measuring twice saves time, material, and aggravation.

Measure Twice, Cut Once in Ministry Leadership

As I consult with various ministries, as I work on Boards of various companies, and as I reflect on my own leadership of various ministries now and over the years, this principle shows up—for good or for ill—all the time. It seems that in Christian ministry in particular, and with visionary leaders specifically, there is a tendency to measure once, cut twice.

That is, there seems to be an impatience to get things done, to keep things moving. This impatience then can lead to executive decisions that have never been “measured” via what I call “change management.”

Change Management

Change management, as the label suggests, is the simple process of managing change (duh!). Early in my ministry leadership, being too young, too impatient, and not trained well enough in leadership dynamics, I assumed that managing change meant communicating that change was coming. Of course, this “communication” dropped the “co” off the word co-mmunication!

It was a monologue. “I want you to be prepared because change is coming.”

Well, as I consult with other ministry leaders today, I recognized that at least I was saying something, and at least I was giving a “heads up!” Some ministry leaders don’t even do that much.

However, when they do “communicate,” they assume, as I mistakenly used to, that one-way monologue is communication and equals change management. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Organizing the Organism

True management of change is true co-mmunication. It is true dialogue. A visionary leader gets an idea (and if he/she is a good visionary leader, that idea comes from interaction with his/her team to begin with), and then bounces that ideas off of others in the organization. For after all, the “organ” in organization means that ministry teams are people—living, breathing organisms. In fact, that’s another phrase I use when consulting with ministries: organize the organism.

When visionary leaders recognize that the ministry God called them to lead is a living organism, part of the Body of Christ, then those leaders can “chill.” They stop. They choose the patient route. They decide to measure twice, cut once. They take the extra time to do due diligence in dialogical communication.

Not only does this make good people sense, it makes good practical sense. How many times I have seen visionary leaders try to quickly force change rather than relationally manage change, only to have to spend scores of hours cleaning up the mess. The time spent measuring twice (change management through relational dialogue) is so much shorter than the time spent cutting twice (cleaning up the mess of poorly managed, non-relational change).

Boatloads, Battleship Loads, Sinking Ships, and One Crew in Christ

Ah. Basement projects. I learn so much from them.

Hopefully we can all learn from them.

Remember, in the basement, and when building up the foundation of any ministry, measure twice, cut once. If we spend boatloads of time dialoguing within the organization about change, then we won’t have to spend battleship-loads of time fixing the sinking organizational ship. Instead, we can sail together as one crew in Christ.

Sharpening the Saw

Sharpening the Saw

I’ve picked up a new “hobby” the past year in a new home—woodworking. As in working with wood to finish my basement, including framing, building ceiling soffetts, putting in a wood floor, and putting in the floor trim and shoe.

Of course, all of this takes a sharp saw. Working with my circular saw for several projects, I finally decided to replace the blade. But I did something first. I timed how long it took to cut a piece of wood with the old blade. I then timed how long it took to cut the same length piece of wood with the new blade.

The old blade? Fifty-five seconds.

The new blade? Twelve seconds.

Not only was the time incredibly less; the work and effort were much less. It was like the proverbial hot knife through warm butter when I used the new blade.

There was something else about this little experiment that intrigued me. Since the saw blade only slowly became duller, I had not detected the extra time and effort necessary to use my saw. This was like another proverbial image: the frog in the kettle of slowly heating water who never detects that he is being cooked! I was clueless to the huge amount of wasted time and effort that I was indulging in by using a warn out saw blade.

Readers of Steve Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People will be familiar with the principle of sharpening the saw in one’s personal and professional life. The concept highlights our need to take care of the tool of the soul—the self. To perform at the highest level, to function well emotionally, volitionally, mentally, relationally, spiritually, and physically, we must keep our saw sharp.

What is the “saw” personally? It’s our inner character—our spiritual maturity through spiritual connection to Christ.

How’s your character saw? If it were dull, would you even detect it since you’ve not checked your blade in ages?

We can try to “do” ministry minus the sharp ministry tool of a soul fine-tuned by spiritual formation. Try as we might, we’ll eventually fail—hurting others with our dull blade.

Here’s to keeping our spiritual saw sharp.

Bill Cosby's Latest Book

Come on People!

Dr. Bill Cosby and Dr. Alvin Poussaint have penned an instant classic that every American, regardless of race should race out to purchase, read, and apply. As a middle-age white male, I fondly remember listening to the wit, wisdom, and humor of Bill Cosby on a 78 (a record for those too young to know). The joy he brought me as a youth is nothing compared to the joy he is bringing a race and a nation today as he and his co-author definitively address the "Path from Victims to Victors."

In 288 pages of tightly-written, well-crafted material, Cosby and Poussaint address, in turn, the topics of: "What's Going on with Black Men," "It Takes a Community," "We All Start Out As Children," The Media You Deserve," "Healthy Hearts and Minds," "The High Price of Violence," and "From Poverty to Prosperity." Simply reading these chapter titles demonstrates that "Come on People" holistically addresses the social ills of a people, wisely looking both at individual responsibility and societal/cultural influences.

From the very beginning, their words are riveting. "For the last generation or two, as our communities dissolved and our parenting skills broke down, no one has suffered more than our young black men. Your authors have been around long enough and traveled widely enough to, to think we understand something about the problem. And we're hopeful enough--or desperate enough--to think that with all of us working together we might find a solution" (p. 1).

Indeed, "Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors" is the single best modern book providing a solution to the problems facing a race and a nation. While an honest book, it is not a negative book. That is, it looks honestly at the negative factors influencing people today, while looking beyond the negative to positive answers and practical solutions.

My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir

My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is normally so quiet--on the bench and about his public life--that he almost has been perceived as reclusive. Finally, thoroughly, and happily, he has spoken (written) with "My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir." Thomas chronicles his rise from poverty, his upbringing by his grandfather who taught him lessons of personal responsibility, and his up-and-down road to the Supreme Court.

All the while Thomas honestly depicts the barriers he faced and the hurdles he had to overcome. Of course, Thomas also finally speaks about the Anita Hill charges. With candor about the pain and with substantiating evidence about the facts, his side of the story is finally told. But the greater message of the book is the story of how Thomas moved beyond suffering and prejudice and bias to live the America dream. It is a story filled with hope and dignity. It is a story worth telling and worth reading.

The "Jena Six" Case Requires the Wisdom of Solomon

The “Jena Six” Case Requires the Wisdom of Solomon

Jena, Louisiana has become a national hotspot after over a year’s worth of racial tension. In September 2006, latent animosity boiled over when a black high school freshmen asked if he could sit under what had become known as the “White Tree.” The next day, three white students hung nooses from the tree. When the principles’ attempt to expel the students was shot down by the Board, more racial friction erupted.

A little more than three months after the unconscionable noose incident, six Black students beat up a white student until he was knocked unconscious. After a three-hour hospital visit, he was released. When the town prosecutor initially charged the “Jena Six” with attempted murder, charges of racism rose again.

It would take the proverbial wisdom of Solomon to dissect the truth in this difficult situation. Clearly, a more strident response against the initial hate crime of hanging the nooses should have occurred. Shame on the school board for backing down. And while charges of attempted murder never were judicially appropriate in this case, those who minimized the attack also have some explaining to do. What would people call it if six white students punched, stomped, and beat one black student until he was unconscious?

But I don’t have the wisdom of Solomon to sort through all the claims and counterclaims to uncover the facts. What is needed is a modern-day Solomon, and not even the Solomon of the Bible, but a black man named Solomon Northrup who spent twelve years enslaved in Louisiana.

This Solomon had the ability to look at life without having the color of one’s skin color his perspective. He could objectively evaluate situations based upon foundational principles of justice.

Born a free black man in 1808 in Maine, at age 33 Northrop was kidnapped and spent twelve years enslaved near the Red River in Louisiana. A learned man and a successful businessman, he penned his own story in 1853. In his narrative, Northrup had no problem condemning cruel slave owners such as John M. Tibeats, describing his repeated brutality and malice.

However, Northrup could see beyond the color of one’s skin and even beyond religious hypocrisy and social injustice. Though recognizing the inconsistency of his white master, William Ford, a slave-owning Baptist preacher, Northrup still could note, “It is but simple justice to him when I say, in my opinion, there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford.” Northrup detailed page after page of Ford’s encouraging preaching and caring personal ministry to him and to other black men and women.

Solomon Northrup displayed the wisdom of Solomon that the people of Jena, Louisiana, and of all America, could use today. He had the discernment to recognize evil and call it such unashamedly. But he also demonstrated the ability to recognize good in others—even in others who were imperfect, even in others who were of a different hue, even in others who were treating him unjustly.

Nationally, pundits, people, pastors, and politicians are taking sides, pitting themselves against each another, claiming to have cornered the market on the truth of the “Jena Six” case. Yet, everyone seems to see the truth through colored lenses filled with preconceived notions, personal ideologies, and cultural baggage. Can’t someone step back, and see the big picture with the eyes of Solomon—of Solomon Northrup?

Reasons to Believe

Reasons to Believe

If you’ve visited Amazon.com or a major bookstore lately, then you know that all the rage in publishing is raging atheists raging against God.

Fortunately, Christians are not silent. Nor are the Scriptures.

Consider some of the following books to help you share and defend your faith.

Lay Level Books

1. The Twilight of Atheism, Alister McGrath.

2. The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel.

3. The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel.

4. The Case for a Creator, Lee Strobel.

5. The Case for Easter, Lee Strobel.

6. Reason to Believe, R. C. Sproul.

7. Christ Among Other Gods, Erwin Lutzer.

8. Jesus Among Other Gods, Ravi Zacharias.

9. The Return of the Village Atheist, Joel McDurmon.

10. Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis.

11. The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell.

12. More Than a Carpenter, Josh McDowell.

13. Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton.

14. Who Made God, Ravi Zacharias.

15. Letter to an Atheist, Michael Leahy.

16. The Real Face of Atheism, Ravi Zacharias.

17. Atheism Versus Christianity, Willow Creek.

18. Twenty Compelling Evidences That God Exists, Kenneth Boa.

19. The Dawkins' Delusion, Alister McGrath.

Going Deeper

1. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, J. P. Moreland.

2. Scaling the Secular City, J. P. Moreland.

3. Reasonable Faith, W. L. Craig.

4. There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind About God, Antony Flew.

5. What's So Great About God, Dinesh D'Souza.

6. The Dawkins Letter: Challenging Atheist Myths, David Robertson.

7. Faith of the Fatherless, Paul Vitz.

8. Letter from a Christian Citizen, Douglas Wilson.

9. Atheism Is False, David Stone.

10. God the Evidence, Patrick Glynn.

11. The Creator and the Cosmos, Hugh Ross.

12. The Fingerprint of God, Hugh Ross.

13. I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Norman Geisler.

14. Darwin on Trial, P. E. Johnson.

15. Hard Questions, Real Answers, W. L. Craig.

16. The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, F. S. Collins.

17. The Hidden Face of God, G. L. Schroeder.

18. Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense, N. T. Wright.

19. Intelligent Design, William Dembski.

A Clay Pot Named Paul Potts

A Clay Pot Named Paul Potts: To Dream the Impossible Dream

Paul Potts' mania has swept over Britain and most of the world. In case you’ve been sleeping this summer and are asking, “Who in the world is Paul Potts,” here’s an overview.

Simon Cowell, famous for his biting criticisms of contestants on American Idol, launched a British version this past year called Britain’s Got Talent. One of the first contestants was a gapped-tooth, portly, shy, unassuming middle-aged man dressed in a cheap suit named Paul Potts who works as a car phone salesman.

The Nervous Man in the Cheap Suit

In the video (view it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA) of his initial performance, the audience sees a nervous, shuffling, under-confident Mr. Potts waiting his turn. As he arrives on stage and nervously announces that he is there to sing opera, Cowell’s raised eyebrows and look of dismay advertise the fact that he and his fellow judges expect Paul to bomb big time.

Then . . . then Paul Potts opens his gap-toothed mouth and the sounds that flow out are unbelievable. Passion, melody, beauty—they all come tumbling out of this “jar of clay, this clay pot” named Paul Potts.

As the camera pans the audience, disbelief, shock, and awe can be seen on their faces. Similarly, as the camera shows Cowell and his two fellow judges, one begins to sense that something unexpected is budding.

Potts’ brief performance is marked by gasps and clasps from the crowd and highlighted by a lengthy and enthusiastic standing ovation as he concludes with a killer-wonderful hitting of the final note.

The Clay Pot Blossoms

A UK newscaster had this to say. “The audience saw a chubby little man in a cheap suit. Then he started to sing.”

The usually vicious Simon Cowell said it simply. “I wasn’t expecting that. I thought you were absolutely fabulous. And you’re selling car phones?”

Cowell’s sidekick noted, “What we have here is a lump of coal that is about to turn into a diamond.”

Potts moved swiftly through subsequent rounds of the competition and with a rousing, full-length operatic singing of Nessun Dorma he was crowned Britain’s best amateur talent. However, he’s an amateur no more. Cowell himself fronted the money to produce Potts’s first album, appropriately named One Chance.

And Potts himself, what’s his take? His back story includes being mercilessly bullied throughout his school years as the shy, fat kid, working dead-end jobs, and a serious accident four years ago. Then, in early 2007, he flipped a coin to decide if he should compete in Britain’s Got Talent. That one coin flip, that one chance, catapulted Potts to the top.

As Potts’ noted, “Before this, I felt so insignificant. After that first night I realized I am somebody. I am Paul Potts!”

And Who Are You?

What’s your impossible dream? What did God design you to be, to do?

What are you waiting for? A flip of a coin?

According to another Paul, this one the famous Apostle Paul, we are all cracked pots. But we have the treasure of the image of God in earthen vessels—and that treasure is waiting inside you ready to be unleashed.

Unleashed the hidden opera singer. Unleashed the hidden Sunday school teacher. Unleash the hidden poet, the hidden writer, the hidden . . .

Unbelieving Atheists

Unbelieving Atheists

Mother Teresa, a decade after her death, is all the rage now. Where? None other than with atheists of all people.

What’s All the Buzz About?

And why? Because of the publication of an innocuously titled new book Mother Teresa: Come to My Light (Doubleday, September 2007).

Consisting primarily of correspondence between Mother Teresa and her confessors and superiors over a period of 66 years, the book offers insight into the inner life of a believer known mostly through her external works of mercy. The letters, many of them preserved against her wishes (she had requested that they be destroyed but was overruled by the Catholic Church), reveal that for the last nearly half-century of her life she experienced the absence of the presence of God. As the book’s compiler and editor, the Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, writes, she experienced Christ’s presence “neither in her heart or in the Eucharist.”

Extravagant Dissonance of Supernatural Candor

Time Magazine labeled these new revelations, in contrast to what previously we knew of Mother Teresa, “extravagant dissonance.” The new breed of missionary atheists, such as Christopher Hitchens, is even crueler and more mistaken than Time.

Hitchens, author of the atheist manifesto God Is Not Great, recently sought to do the work of a soul physician on the soul of a believer now dead a decade. His scathing polemic claims “she was no more exempt from the realization that religion is a human fabrication than any other person, and that her attempted cure was more and more professions of faith could only have deepened the pit that she had dug for herself.”

Hitchens and his ilk make for poor psychologists, destitute historians, and bankrupt soul physicians.

Stages of Faith

From a psychological perspective, research into the nature of faith, such as that done by James Fowler in Stages of Faith suggest the opposite about Mother Teresa than what Hitchens summarily proposes. Rather than exhibiting hypocrisy or being bereft of faith, Mother Teresa, in continuing to serve Christ by serving others while experiencing the absence of the presence of God was revealing the highest level of faith. Hers was not the trust of a child, nor the blind faith of those at lower levels of belief, but the highest, deepest, and most dependent reliance.

Historical Precedence

From a historical perspective, Mother Teresa’s experience has been so common for so long that it has its own name: “the dark night of the soul.” Great believers of the past, of all shapes and sizes, types and denominations, have experienced lengthy bouts of agonizing doubts.

Amongst Catholics, to name a few, Saint John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Saint Teresa of Lisieux (from whom Mother Teresa took her religious name) all endured the absence of God’s presence.

Of many representative Protestant believers, Martin Luther is a primary case study. So intangible was Luther’s Christ, that Luther developed an entire “theology of the Cross” to explain the paradox of a God who is most present in His very absence.

Thus, if unbelieving atheists wanted to harp on believing doubters, they’ve missed the boat for the past 2,000 years. If they think Mother Teresa is the first test case, then perhaps they should read not only Church history, but, heaven forbid, the Bible. Talk about candor! Historical biblical characters (think Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Thomas—the Patron Saint of Doubters—among many others) all lived lives of faith even while doubting.

Soul Physicians’ Diagnosis

So what diagnosis would or should a physician of the soul offer concerning Mother Teresa? First, it is important to recall that she did have soul physicians—her Confessors and Spiritual Directors to whom she wrote this now debated letters. Funny that they did not expose her as a hypocritical heretic.

Funnier too, that her own biographer/complier (Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, a Senior Missionaries of Charity member responsible for petitioning for her sainthood and collecting the supporting materials) gathered these letters in support of her case for sainthood.

Time Magazine put it like this. “Kolodiejchuk sees it (the characteristic stage of faith known as the ‘dark night’) in St. John's (of the Cross) context, as darkness within faith. Teresa found ways, starting in the early 1960s, to live with it and abandoned neither her belief nor her work. Kolodiejchuk produced the book as proof of the faith-filled perseverance that he sees as her most spiritually heroic act.”

Funniest of all, that the Catholic Church, attacked by Hitchens and his crowd of hateful doubters of those who doubt, did not seek to hide these letters. In fact, against her dying wishes, the Church chose to preserve these testimonies of doubt as evidence of faith.

Clinging to Christ

One need not be a Catholic, nor a Catholic apologist, nor even a Mother Teresa backer to acknowledge the psychological, historical, and spiritual realities behind the inner spiritual life of the former Agnes Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa’s birth name).

Personally, rather than taunt her for her torment, I applaud her. More than that, I identify with her. Her candor combined with her tenacious clinging to Christ gives me hope that my doubts are a severe mercy of God designed to harpoon me to His Spirit while the irrepressible tsunami of God’s absence batters my soul.

African American Christian Faith

Her clinging faith reminds me once again of the clinging faith of enslaved African American Christians. Nellie, a former slave from Savannah, Georgia sounds like a modern-day Mother Teresa with her startling candor.

“It has been a terrible mystery, to know why the good Lord should so long afflict my people, and keep them in bondage—to be abused, and trampled down, without any rights of their own—with no ray of light in the future. Some of my folks said there wasn’t any God, for if there was He wouldn’t let white folks do as they have done for so many years”.

When her mistress questions her about her faith, a slave known to us only as Polly explains her hope. “We poor creatures have need to believe in God, for if God Almighty will not be good to us some day, why were we born? When I heard of his delivering his people from bondage I know it means the poor Africans.”

Integrative Faith

Mother Teresa’s faith was not a case study in self-contradiction. Instead, she placed her faith in Christ rather than placing her faith in her faith. Entrusting her soul to an invisible Savior, the world saw Christ in her even when she could not see Christ in the world.

All the Colors of the Rainbow

All the Colors of the Rainbow

Why do we find multi-cultural worship so difficult. Here we are in the first decade of the 21st century, and yet Sunday mornings are still the most segregated hours in America! What a shame. What a sin. What are we going to do about it?

1. Be Proactive: Connect personally with someone of a different ethnic background.

2. Be Intentional: Influence your church leadership and members to purposefully build cross-cultural bridges.

3. Be Educated: Read excellent works on multicultural churches like those of David Anderson.

4. Be Brave: Don't expect everyone to support you. Do expect some to subvert you.

5. Be Thrilled: Nothing thrills the soul more than worship of every tribe, nation, and tongue. Just ask God in Revelation 5!

Ministering in My Home Town

Ministering in My Home Town

What an amazing chain of events. Let me walk you through the history and show you something of God's majesty even as He works in mystery.

1. Forty-eight years ago I was born at Methodist Hospital in downtown Gary, IN, and raised on 11th and Hovey in the Heart of Gary. At the time, Gary was one of the most integrated cities in America.

2. Fast forward thirty-some years and God leads me to chair the counseling and discipleship program at Capital Bible Seminary in DC--one of the most integrated Evangelical seminaries in the world.

3. Move back in time two years ago and see God orchestrate my co-authoring, with Karole Edwards, an African American graduate of our MA in counseling/discipleship, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

4. Moving closer to present-day, I move "back home" to Crown Point, IN, just 15 minutes from my birthplace. I continue to work full-time in DC (that's another story for another day!).

5. Soon after moving back, I read a fascinating article about Pastor Charles Floyd, III, Senior Pastor of New Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church on 23rd Avenue in Gary. Seems he teaches a Moody Bible Institute distance education course. Having many connections myself with Moody Bible, I contact Pastor Floyd.

6. Pastor Floyd invites me to attend one of his evening classes. I go, thinking it will consist mostly of members of his congregation. Little do I know that most of the 20 men and women in attendance are leaders at 20 different African American Churches in downtown Gary.

7. By the end of the night, so wonderfully orchestrated by God over the course of forty-eight years, doors open for ministering at a score of churches in Gary, IN: my hometown. God does indeed work in mysterious ways!

Interviewed on the Bob Dutko Show

Interviewed on the

Bob Dutko Show

I was interviewed August 7th on the Bob Dutko Show. Dutko is a conservative Christian radio host on FM 103.5 WMUZ ("The Light")--the most listened to Christian radio show in Michigan. The focus was the release of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction.

Bob focused on the relationship of past African American life to current issues in the African American church. What is unique about the African American church? How have African American Christians learned to deal with suffering? What does forgiveness look like? His penetrating questions helped to highlight how valuable it is to understand a group's history in order to understand a group's current ministry.

For Such a Time As This

For Such a Time As This

Today marks the launch of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. We offer this book with the prayer that God would allow all readers to:

1. Be empowered to apply proven ways to help people find healing hope in the midst of deep pain and sorrow by identifying with past African American believers who ministered in the crucible of suffering.

2. Be equipped to minister more effectively in cross-cultural settings by uncovering the buried treasure of wisdom about soul care and spiritual direction as seen through the eyes, experienced in the souls, and told from the lips of past African American Christians.

3. Be enabled to skillfully practice the historic soul care arts of sustaining, healing, reconciling, and guiding which are distinctively grounded both in the Word of God and in the legacy of African American believers.

4. Be encouraged to build healing communities where Christians find courage and comfort in God and each other.

5. Be enlightened by the founding fathers of the African American church about how to be a godly male leader who leaves a lasting legacy of love.

6. Be enthused by the heroic sisters of the spirit of the African American church in how to be a powerful female spiritual friend.

7. Be enriched by past African American husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers concerning how to nurture and enjoy godly living in the home.

Quiet Strength

Quiet Strength: Book Review

Super Bowl championship coach Tony Dungy writes a tell-all book that the entire family can read. In fact, Dungy would not start his own bio with "super bowl championship coach." Instead, he would begin it with "Christian," then "husband," "parent," and "friend." Even when talking about coaching, Dungy's philosophy is on coaching the entire person--mentoring. Quiet Strength is one part autobiography, one part thrilling sports biography, one part coaching technique, one part dealing with suffering, one part family life narrative, one part social commentary, and one part Christian living teaching. Woven together seamlessly, the subtitle accurately provides the beautiful tapestry that results: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life.

Caucasian Writer Co-Authors Book on African American Ministry

Caucasian Writer Co-Authors Book on African American Ministry

*Note to My Blog Readers: Please feel free to forward this news release to your local newspapers.

The Elephant in the Room

When Bob Kellemen offers seminars on his new book Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction, he starts by addressing the proverbial “elephant in the room.” “Why did a white guy write a book about African American church life?”

As Kellemen explained, “First, I didn’t write it, I co-wrote it with Karole Edwards who is a wonderful African American friend and a graduate of the seminary where I teach. Second, we like to say that we didn’t co-author the book as much as we co-edited Beyond the Suffering. We wove together first-hand accounts of the amazing narratives concerning how African American Christians found courage and comfort in God and each other to move beyond the suffering of slavery to a place of healing hope.”

Kellemen continued, “But that still doesn’t address what prompted my interest in this fascinating topic. I grew up on 11th and Hovey in downtown Gary, IN. I’ve spent my whole life in a multi-cultural environment. Currently I teach at a school (Capital Bible Seminary in Lanham, MD) with no majority culture. God has called me to a life-long, multi-cultural ministry.”

A Mutual Passion

Kellemen’s co-author, Edwards, shared her own passion for Beyond the Suffering. “For me the journey began as I delved deeper into historical African American stories and discovered a cavern of invaluable truth. As I was being changed by the story unfolding before me, I wondered how others might also be changed by seeing God’s story unfolding through our history.”

Baker Books

According to the publisher, Baker Books, “Beyond the Suffering is the African American story told by African Americans for the benefit of all Americans. The African American Church has always helped hurting and hardened people through personal and corporate ministry. Beyond the Suffering uncovers the great spiritual riches of this African American Christian tradition.”

Kellemen concurred. “Beyond the Suffering desires to inspire today’s generation as they hear the voices of past African American Christians speaking through its pages. By listening to its historical narrative, readers learn to speak to today’s world with relevance. Beyond the Suffering assists African American and non-African American lay people, pastors, and Christian counselors to become more spiritually aware and skillful by deriving modern implications from these recovered resources. And it equips all believers for more effective cross-cultural ministry.”

Pulling the Rope in Unison

Of the 100s of real-life vignettes recorded in the book, Kellemen shared one story (“Pulling the Rope in Unison”) illustrative of the practical nature of the entire book. “Venture Smith was born in Guinea about 1729. Kidnapped at age eight, Robertson Mumford purchased him a year later. After living with Mumford for thirteen years, Venture married Meg at age twenty-two. They remained together for over forty-seven years, through many trials and tribulations, until parted by death.”

“Venture’s narrative contains an explanation for their marital faithfulness. On the occasion of their marriage, Venture threw a rope over his cabin and asked his wife to go to the opposite side and pull on the rope hanging there while he remained and pulled on his end. After they both had tugged at it awhile in vain, he called her to his side of the cabin and by their united effort they drew the rope to themselves with ease. He then explained the object lesson to his young bride. ‘If we pull in life against each other we shall fail, but if we pull together we shall succeed.’” According to Kellemen, “premarital couples, newlyweds, and seasoned married spouses would all do well to heed Venture’s guiding wisdom.”

Dr. Tony Evans

Internationally-known African American pastor and author, Dr. Tony Evans, in his Foreword to Beyond the Suffering noted that “Most students of history focus on the pain of the African American experience in America. There was a lot of pain! And we should not minimize that pain. However, as the title suggests, Beyond the Suffering goes further. It shows us how the pain experienced by people from the African American culture can be redeemed to give life to people from any race or culture. The captivating true stories and first-hand narratives have a therapeutic and healing quality for the reader and those they serve. After you read Beyond the Suffering, you will have a deeper understanding of how God forged character in people through their suffering and be able to apply many valuable insights to your personal life and future ministry.”

So About That Elephant?

So, about that elephant in the room? Kellemen said, “Regardless of the color of our skin, we are all human beings with similar struggles and suffering, hopes and dreams. Beyond the Suffering listens to the voices of a people who ministered in the crucible of suffering. Everyone, from every race, can benefit from hearing these voices, from reading and applying these courageous stories.”

To Order

Beyond the Suffering is available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Nobles, Wal Mart, and other bookstores and bookselling websites.

Dissecting the Controversial High Court Decision

Dissecting the Controversial High Court Decision[i]

Should society be color-blind? Is the US Constitution color-blind? These are the questions debated by the US Supreme Court in their controversial June 28, 2007, decision striking down two school integration programs. With its emotional and splintered decision, the Court wrestled with a question that has dogged the long fight over integration: "When will the nation be able to disregard an individual’s race entirely?"

A Conservative View

Some conservatives, citing Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s hope that people will one day be judged not “by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” and former Justice John Harlan’s opinion that “our Constitution is color-blind,” have long argued that the time has come to set aside racial preferences of any kind. The way to remedy discrimination against minorities, they insist, is not to endorse discrimination against whites.

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., joined by the court’s three other conservatives, gave some hope Thursday to advocates of that approach. “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” Roberts wrote in perhaps the snappiest sentence of his opinion.

For decades, some conservatives have argued fiercely against atoning for the nation’s racial sins by explicitly favoring minorities, whether through affirmative action, contract set-aside programs, or desegregation plans. Society should be color-blind, they have contended, and perpetuating racial classifications is highly destructive.

A Moderate View

On the other hand, the moderate-conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy noted that a color-blind society may be a wonderful goal, but it ignores reality.”The enduring hope is that race should not matter; the reality is that too often it does,” Kennedy wrote. “As an aspiration, Justice Harlan’s axiom must command our assent. In the real world, it is regrettable to say, it cannot be a universal constitutional principle.”

A Liberal View

Liberals have argued with similar passion that after centuries of slavery, discrimination and racism, simply treating everyone equally now will not alleviate the inequality still suffered by blacks in housing, education and other areas.

“The Constitution cannot plausibly be interpreted to rule out categorically all local efforts to use means that are ‘conscious’ of the race of individuals,” Justice Breyer wrote. “The context here is one of racial limits that seek, not to keep the races apart, but to bring them together.”

The Constitutional Issue

The impassioned dispute that played out among the justices in the pages of their opinions often touched on what is generally regarded as the grandest civil rights case of all: Brown vs. Board of Education, the 1954 case that outlawed segregation and the doctrine of “separate but equal.”

Both sides Thursday claimed the mantle of Brown. Roberts and his camp claimed that Brown’s principle, that students cannot be discriminated against on the basis of race, was the one they were following.”When it comes to using race to assign children to schools, history will be heard,” Roberts wrote. “Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin. The school districts in these cases bear the heavy burden of demonstrating that we should allow this once again—even for very different reasons.”

That argument seemed to particularly anger the court’s four liberals, who reacted strongly against the notion of comparing the school districts in Louisville and Seattle, struggling for racial balance, to the racists and bigots of the nation’s past. “It is a cruel distortion of history to compare Topeka, Kan., in the 1950s to Louisville and Seattle in the modern day,” Breyer wrote.

Justice Stevens used similar language. “There is a cruel irony in the chief justice’s reliance on our decision in Brown vs. Board of Education,” he wrote. “It is my firm conviction that no member of the court that I joined in 1975 would have agreed with today’s decision.”

Not every case so visibly stirs the justices’ emotion. In most decisions, those in the minority conclude their opinions by writing “I respectfully dissent” or simply “I dissent.”Breyer’s dissent Thursday seemed impelled by a stronger force. “This is a decision that the court and the nation will come to regret,” he concluded his opinion. “I must dissent."

[i]Excerpted and edited with personal commentary by Bob Kellemen from the Chicago Tribune, June 29, 2007, by Naftali Bendavid, Washington Bureau Tribune staff reporters Michael J. Higgins, Carlos Sadovi, and Gary Washburn.

A Son Marries

On Saturday, June 23, 2007, Shirley and I had the joy of celebration the wedding of our firstborn son, Josh to his new bride, Andi.

Memories. Nostalgia. Josh's birth, first months in Winona Lake while completing seminary. Move to Elyria, OH and nine years of family and ministry there. K-4th grade. Moving to MD and a dozen years there in the pastorate and seminary with Josh in 5th-12th grade and college, wrestling, studying, friends. A year back in Indiana as Josh completes his Sr. year of college.

Meals together. Playing. Devotions. Vacations. Long walks. Great talks. Best friends. Story telling. Church life. Friends. Holidays. Holy days.
Cheers and tears. Love, faith, hope, grace, peace.

Where did the time go?

Fortunately, we made and by God's grace kept, the commitment to enjoy every moment, to focus on the family, to resist the tendency to allow ministry to drown out family.

Would we do anything differently? Well, of course, with 20/20 hindsight, there are always changes that could have been made. But, regrets? No, not really. Together, we lived life to the fullest. We were, and are, family.

The next step? Loving our adult son and our new adult daughter-in-law. New memories. New nostalgia. New commitments.

Three Books for My Birthday

Three Books for My Birthday

What more could I want for my next birthday than three books--especially if they are my own books! On August 1, my birthday, Beyond the Suffering will be released by Baker Books. That same day, BMH Books will release the revised third editions of Soul Physicians and Spiritual Friends. Quite the birthday present.

All three books, though unique in their own way, have one guiding theme: using the Word of God and the history of the Christian church to relate God's truth to our daily lives and ministry.

Soul Physicians provides a unique theology of Christian living.

Spiritual Friends builds upon this theology by offering a training manual for developing 22 skills of biblical counseling.

Beyond the Suffering highlights how lay and pastoral African Americans practiced soul care and spiritual direction to move one another beyond the horrible suffering of enslavement to a place of healing hope through Christ's resurrection power.

Yep, a pretty nice birthday present!

Tennis and Life

Tennis and Life

In the women’s fourth round of the 2007 French Open, Maria Sharapova saved two match points but drew jeers while beating Patty Schnyder 3-6, 6-4, 9-7.

Spectators turned on Sharapova at 7-7 in the final set, when she won a disputed point while serving at 30-love. Schnyder watched a serve land in, then complained she had held up a hand to call for time.

Mother Teresa As a Tennis Player

The chair umpire ruled the point would count, giving Sharapova her first ace of the tournament. Sharapova said later she didn’t see Schnyder’s hand until after hitting the ball—and had no regrets about what happened.

“It’s pretty hard being a tennis player and Mother Teresa at the same time,” Sharapova said. “You’re fighting for every single point out there.”

Sharapova As a Philosopher

By Sharapova’s reasoning, one might also conclude that it’s pretty hard being a human being in the world today and living like Jesus at the same time.

Actually, according to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus would agree—it is hard to live a godly life in a godless world.

Of course, Jesus’ definition of “success” is worlds apart from Sharapova’s. Wasn’t that the whole point of His Sermon on the Mount? To turn the world upside down. To turn upside down our perspective on how we live and on why we live.